Monthly Archives: August 2017

The author uses the acronym WEIRD to underline how marginal a group that runs North American society is in actuality. Western Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic peoples see themselves as some how select and justifiably holding power.
Much of the mythology of this group’s beliefs are not upheld by actual scientific studies. There are more and more details emerging about the complexity of DNA. For instance, It is necessary to examine 500,000 SNPs on a gene chip to predict 1/2 of the individual’s variation in I.Q. (A single-nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP is a variation in a single nucleotide that occurs at a specific position in the genome, where each variation is present to some appreciable degree within a population ). The more research is done, the more incredibly vast the structure of DNA shows itself to be.

And what of environment? Americans from the Southern United States respond more aggressively to insults than do those who dwell in the Northern part of the country.

What about the issue of cultural conditioning? Why do Japanese people look more at the background of photographs than other nationalities? Why is it that Russians are less likely to get depressed?

One thing that has been clearly established is that I.Q. emerges from what we are able to learn about our environment. It is the result of intention and curiosity.

The focus on Eugenics is a recurrent theme in the history of attitude toward human kind. The extreme was the Nazi intention to “cleanse” certain undesirables from the breeding pool. However, the idea was already present in the world at large. It was not a new thought.

In 1924 at the Kansas Free Fair there were displays of desirable qualities that should exist in a human being. People were encourage to complete questionnaires. Fair attendees allowed measurements of their bodies; medical inspections, physical challenge tests and I.Q. tests. Were they and their family fit to reproduce?

In 1927 the state of Virginia systematically sterilized institutionalized individuals who were denied the right to procreate.

Many great writers and thinkers of the day touted Eugenics.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr:It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. Three generations of imbecils is enough.”

At this time 60,000 Americans were sterilized and more minority races bore the brunt of this institutional selection. Similar mandatory sterilization regimes emerged in Canada, Sweden, Japan and Latin America well into the 1970’s.

Alexander Graham Bell was the chair of the board of scientific advisors to the Eugenics Record Office. H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, the Rockefeller family, Carnegie, Guggenheim, Eastman, Kellog and Vanderbilt all touted the necessity for selective breeding which resulted in neutering individuals.
In the year 1928 it was possible to take a eugenics course to study the necessity for systematic sterilization on the campus of 376 universities.
Teddy Roosevelt said in his speeches, “The right kind of people need to have children for their country.”

W.E. Dubois spoke to the need that only “fit” blacks be allowed to reproduce.
In Canada. Tommy Douglas in 1933 wrote his master’s thesis about the necessity of addressing a country’s social ills with biological solutions.

Margaret Sanger, the Sierra Club and Save the Redwoods organizations spoke out for the necessity of selective breeding for a perfect race. The redwood became the symbol for a “great race of humans.”
Where is Western thinking at the current time? We have invented methodologies to check on the rightness of a child’s DNA before birth or in some cases before implantation.

Amniocentesis; cell free DNA fetal screening, PGD pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and cloning are the result. And now CRISP can tag DNA for the purpose of “swopping out” certain traits. The world has entered a genetic engineering arms race. The desirability of sperm has lead to California cryobanks wherein “mate value” is catalogued in files.
At the present time, 20% of Americans like the concept of genetically engineering a child. These people fit the profile of those who are “maximizers”. These individuals always want the very best deal they can find. Another group which are delineated as the “satisfiers” want only to achieve a level of satisfaction with their choice.
Heine asks the question, “Would our efforts to engineer our children leave society without the mental illnesses that have spurred some of humanities greatest creations?’

With the intense focus on the gene and genetic imprinting in decades of experimentation science has arrived at a point of knowing what we are not able to engineer with our biological customizations: intelligence, attractiveness, personality traits and height.

The conclusion that the book underlines is that science has become obsessed with finding a simple answer to the questions of human kind. The National Institute of Health has spent four times the money on genomics research than it ever has on the study of behavior and social science combined. We want simple stories. We want simple answers.

For all of our searching we have only found that “All humans on the face of the earth are related within 79 generations of each other.” We are the same race.

Our concepts of racial separation are no more than social constructs and do not exist in biology. We have over estimated the effect of a gene’s influence on an individual human being. And we have underestimated the dynamic of behavior and social conditioning.
The questions are just beginning. But when we see groups of people chanting hatred of another group that they wish to extinquish… we are back to uneducated and unaware thinking. We are all the same family. That is proven by DNA studies.

New blog about Dr. Heine’s book on DNA. Really timely.
In a new book, DNA Is Not Destiny: The remarkable, completely misunderstood relationship between you and your genes, UBC Psychology Professor Steven Heine debunks the hype surrounding DNA testing and puts to rest our mistaken anxieties about our genes. He explores how our psychological biases make us fatalistic about genetics, and how these biases intersect with such hot-button topics as race, sexual orientation, crime, disease, eugenics, and genetic engineering.
While I was reading this book I felt as if somebody had removed my dark shadow glasses. How relevant is Heine’s study at this time in cultural history: Transformative.
I wish to share with you the information that he studied carefully and at length.
There have been shifts in attitude towards groups of people based on the science of genetics that have driven entire cultures in their choices.
The first stage of DNA study was to invest DNA with some sort of magical, fated imprint that individuals were confined within. Epigenetics became the following field of study. But basically the Nature or Nurture pendulum choices have driven hundreds of years of scientific study.
New experiments have demonstrated that mice who are trained to fear the smell of cherry blossoms will pass the phobia on to proceeding generations.

“A specific phobia learned by one generation was passed in the sperm to the next generations.”
Sir Francis Galton in 1869 became interested in the shared script of twins. He studied 35 sets of identical twins and 20 sets of fraternal twins. His discoveries created an opening in the structures of belief that were shocking to scientists of his day.
One set of twins developed identical tooth aches at the same time in the same tooth. Both needed to undergo extraction. Identical twins who lived apart reported the same dream at the same time. Identical twins selected the same jobs, bought each other the same gifts.
What Galton found in his studies and what more recent experiments have found is that the following things were inherited by individuals who share identical DNA even if they are apart.
belief in a God
belief in racism
love or hatred of jazz
amount and type of passive watching of entertainment.
belief in euthanasia
being a bully
being a hoarder
volunteering to give blood
how happy or content
love of science fiction
likelihood of being mugged (yep true story)
Eric Turkeheimer discovered the “First law of behavioral genetics” which is to assume by default that a trait is inherited until proven otherwise.
However, studies also indicated the environment can contribute to an individual growing to be 11 inches taller than relatives simply by living in a culture that offers more nutrition in childhood.
One definite proof is that contemporary Americans are no longer growing taller each generation simply because of the prevalence of fast food. Their eating is making them less healthy.
People who share the same inherited DNA also respond to the environment in terms of skin color. Descendents of the same family will have lighter skin in Seattle and following generations will have darker skin living in Los Angeles.
An additionally inherited trait is what has been labelled “Cognitive Misers.” These are families that have the trait that causes fear of making an effort. When an individual is caught up in this web he or she needs to work to consciously adopt heuristic methodology. Being aware of how a particular event or opportunity fits into our over existing belief about the nature of reality, allows an individual to move out of past patterning.
In ancient time Hippocrates in 5 BCE structured his belief pattern on the cosmology of the four elements: Phlegm; blood; yellow bile; black bile. This was in the school of thought of essence or essentialism: Things are as they are because of their underlying essence.
Essentialism lead to the craniometrists in the 19th century stating that criminal faces such as “jug ears” demonstrated without need for further evidence that the individual was not to be trusted.
The Japanese belief in blood types is another example of essentialism which reverberates through out our contemporary culture.The following beliefs are or have been shared in cultures:
deep down and within the body are aspects that cannot be changed.
what a person is is entirely visible on the surface.
“You are what you eat,” belief lead to cannibalism of individuals that were admired in enemy tribes.
essence is perceived to be “natural” or correct in nature.
1/3 of heart transplant recipients felt that they had taken on an aspect of the donor… been transfused with the donor’s essence.
wealthy people, the uber rich and corporate heads belief more completely in essence based thinking. Some people have power essence. Some people have “slave” essence.
So throughout the cycles of exploration of the individual in society there have been shifts in focus from a complete belief in the imprint of nature. The questions of is it a life sentence, or of individual choice keep arising.
(essence) and nurture (environment). The four elements; the idea of soul personality; blood types are all space holders for the concept of essence.
Historically the gene has come to take the place of essence. James Watson declared that, “Our fate is in our genes.” And it has lead to what the author calls the “switched on theory.”
A gene is either switched on or switched off. Genes are “natural” and from God. This line of thinking is what has lead to recent socially held beliefs such as there is an infidelity gene; that divorce is heritable: that I.Q is attached to race.
The difficulty with essence thinking is that it becomes attached to social topics. Gender for instance is imbued with essence thinking.
To be male is inborn, clear, an action driven preordained path.
To be female is to lack power, to be internalized (as their sexual organs are internalized).
The countries in the world which are the most gender neutral and egalitarian are the Netherlands, Finland and Germany. Nigeria and Pakistan have an over arching essence based thinking. And in some of the most economically developed countries in the world, women are still restricted from access to power.
In today’s world 47% of those who are transgendered are fired. The commonly held belief is that they cannot be trusted because they do not accept their fate.
Many political analysts see that George Bush was re-elected primarily because of the same sex issue. The belief in the “un-naturalness” of some people. It was a stereotyped threat to the beliefs of a particular segment of society.
It was also discovered in test studies that those who were lead to believe that homo-sexuality was in the DNA were less likely to condemn individuals. Those who believed that the subjects were making an “un-natural” choice were condemnatory.
So social attitudes towards homo-sexuality depends on the concept of essence. The switch is on. Or the switch is off. It is simplistic thinking at best.
Men with a lot of older brothers are more like to be gay. Is there something in the environment of the mother’s womb that is at work? There are more questions than answers.
In the legal system in Tennessee in 1910 one drop of black blood made you and your off spring black. Classifying people as of higher essence than other people based on their DNA inheritance has lead to eugenetics.
Eugenetics means “good at birth. Certain individuals have been born with a more perfect essence than others. One of the belief systems in North America that is still in place is that intelligence is an inherited “essence.”
Other nations such as Japan believe that skill, intelligence are qualities that a person can build through hard work.
In fact, the intelligence indicators in young children is only 5 points variant different in the entire tested group. This grows to 17 points in adult hood depending on a number of factors. The evidence is that intelligence is not a genetic gift; it is not a sign from God; it is not an essence; it is not a life sentence.
“Intelligence emerges from what we learn about our environment, ” the author reminds us.
The information in this book is absolutely relevant in today’s world where the uber rich see themselves as somehow genetically superior. Those who believe that essence is the divide between people need to know that the switch is not “turned on” for white people, powerful people, successful people. The study of DNA and environment is much more complex. I will go on to present the studies about Eugenics and the horror of cruelty that was enacted in societies across the world based on simplistic construct. Next time!!

While I was reading this book I felt as if somebody had removed my dark shadow glasses. How relevant is Heine’s study at this time in cultural history: Transformative.

I wish to share with you the information that he studied carefully and at length.

There have been shifts in attitude towards groups of people based on the science of genetics that have driven entire cultures in their choices.

The first stage of DNA study was to invest DNA with some sort of magical, fated imprint that individuals were confined within. Epigenetics became the following field of study. But basically the Nature or Nurture pendulum choices have drives hundreds of years of scientific study.

New experiments have demonstrated that mice who are trained to fear the smell of cherry blossoms will pass the phobia on to proceeding generations. “A specific phobia learned by one generation was passed in the sperm to the next generations.”

Sir Francis Galton in 1869 became interested in the shared script of twins. He studied 35 sets of identical twins and 20 sets of fraternal twins. His discoveries created an opening in the structures of belief that were shocking to scientists of his day.

One set of twins developed identical tooth aches at the same time in the same tooth. Both needed to under go extraction. Identical twins who lived apart reported the same dream at the same time. Identical twins selected the same jobs, bought each other the same gifts.

What Galton found in his studies that the following things were inherited by individuals who share identical DNA even if they are apart.

belief in a God

belief in racism

love or hatred of jazz

amount and type of TV watched

belief in euthenasia

being a bully

being a hoarder

volunteering to give blood

how happy or content

love of science fiction

likelihood of being mugged

Eric Turkeheimer discovered the “First law of behavioral genetics” which is to assume by default that a trait is inherited until proven otherwise.

However, studies also indicated the environment can contribute to an individual growing to be 11 inches taller than relatives simply by living in a culture that offers more nutrition in childhood.

One example of this is that contemporary Americans are no longer growing taller each generation simply because of the prevalence of fast food.

People who share the same inherited DNA also respond to the environment in terms of skin color. Descendents of the same family will have lighter skin in Seattle and following generations will have darker skin living in Los Angeles.

An additionally inherited trait is what has been labelled “Cognitive Misers.” These are families that have the trait that causes fear of making an effort. When an individual is caught up in this web he or she needs to work to consciously adopt heuristic methodology. Being aware of how a particular event or opportunity fits into our over existing belief about the nature of reality, allows an individual to move out of past patterning.

In ancient time Hippocrates in the 5 BCE structured his belief pattern on the cosmology of the four elements: Phlegm; blood; yellow bile; black bile. This was in the school of thought of essence or essentialism: Things are as they are because of their underlying essence.

Essentialism lead to the craniometrists in the 19th century stating that criminal faces such as “jug ears” demonstrated without need for further evidence that the individual was not to be trusted.

The Japanese belief in blood types is another example of essentialism which reverberates through out our contemporary culture.

deep down and within the body are aspects that cannot be changed.

what a person is entirely visible on the surface.

“You are what you eat,” belief lead to cannibalism of individuals that were admired in enemy tribes.

essence is perceived to be “natural” or correct in nature.

1/3 of heart transplant5 recipients felt that they had taken on an aspect of the donor… been transfused with the donor’s essence.

wealthy people, the uber rich and corporate heads belief more completely in essence based thinking. Some people have power essence. Some people have “slave” essence.

So throughout the cycles of exploration if the individual in society there have been shifts in focus from nature (essence) and nurture (environment). The four elements; the idea of soul personality; blood types are all space holders for the concept of essence.

Historically the gene has come to take the place of essence. James Watson declared that, “Our fate is in our genes.” And it has lead to what the author calls the “switched on theory.”

A gene is either switched on or switched off. Genes are “natural” and from God. This line of thinking is what has lead to recent socially held beliefs such as there is an infidelity gene; that divorce is heritable.

The difficulty with essence thinking is that it becomes attached to social topics. Gender for instance is imbued with essence thinking.

To be male is inborn, clear, an action driven preordained path.

To be female is to lack power, to be internalized (as their sexual organs are internalized). The countries in the world which are the most gender neutral and egalitarian are the Netherlands, Finland and Germany. Nigeria and Pakistan have an over arching essence based thinking.

In today’s world 47% of those who are transgendered are fired. They cannot be trusted because the do not accept their fate.

Many political analysts see that George Bush was re-elected primarily because of the same sex issue. The belief in the “un-naturalness” of some people. It was a stereotyped threat to the beliefs of a particular segment of society.

It was also discovered in test studies that those who were lead to believe that homo-sexuality was in the DNA were less likely to condemn individuals. Those who believed that the subjects were making an “un-natural” choice were condemnatory.

So social attitudes towards homo-sexuality depends on the concept of essence. The switch is on. Or the switch is off. It is simplistic thinking at best.

Men with a lot of older brothers are more like to be gay. Is there something in the environment of the mother’s womb that is at work?

In the legal system in Tennessee in 1910 one drop of black blood made you and your off spring black. Classifying people as of higher essence than other people based on their DNA inheritance has lead to eugenetics.

Eugenetics means “good at birth. Certain individuals have been born with a more perfect essence than others. One of the belief systems in North America that is still in place is that intelligence is an inherited “essence.”

Other nations such as Japan believe that skill, intelligence are qualities that a person can build through hard work.

In fact, the intelligence indicators in young children is only 5 points different in the entire tested group. This grows to 17 points in adult hood depending on a number of factors. The evidence is that intelligence is not a genetic gift; it is not a sign from God; it is not an essence; it is not a life sentence.

“Intelligence emerges from what we learn about our environment, ” the author reminds us.

The information in this book is absolutely relevant in today’s world where the uber rich see themselves as somehow genetically superior. Those who believe that essence is the divide between people need to know that the switch is not “turned on” for white people, powerful people, successful people. The study of DNA and environment is much more complex. I will go on to present the studies about Eugenics and the horror of cruelty that was enacted in societies across the world based on simplistic construct. Next time!!

I have had pneumonia four separate times in my life and the air around Kelowna sits at a 7 out of 10 for days on end. I am challenged. When I go outside my eyes, nose and throat sting. My chest feels as if it is being crushed.

Sometimes when I am driving and the “gauge” sits at 8 I wear a filter mask. But mostly, I remain at home within the walls of my upstairs retreat. The air conditioning which I have installed upstairs keeps my body in an environment of 25 Celsius.

The major work I am doing is maintaining my bed and breakfast for my guests. No matter how often I dust, there is dust and ash on surfaces.

It is like trying to maintain a pristine environment during the last days of Pompeii. I have even resorted to explaining to guests that when the entire vista is obscured by smoke and ash… that will end up on everything.

I am busy from 8 am until at least 6 at night on my bed and breakfast. The spiritual/emotional work is to not push back against conditions.

At night, I catch myself saying,

“You didn’t do enough. Your garden is getting weedy. You have not submitted to any publishers in weeks. You are not writing/drawing/painting/tidying the art studio/painting the entryway/ working out hard enough.”

When evening time arrives I invariably indulge in the orgy of self criticism.

One Sunday, I went to Bliss Bakery as a wild mustang, crazy break out from my necessity to clean and prepare. I had jumped the fences. I was loosened from my schedule. I was a strumpet focused only on pleasuring myself.

And I was pissed off. I was pissed off at the smoke and the heat and the 7 days a week of working non stop since April 1st. I was pissed off at being pissed off and not at peace for what ever current of the river was carrying me now. I was pissed off that I cared about time passing and the delusional sense of narrowing opportunities. I was watching a tag team wrestling match and all the athletes were me in various formations in two teams. There was no way to tap out of the conflict.

As I stood at the glass and saw my Morning Glory Muffin was gone, I lowered my head. And tears came into my eyes.

“Of course they are all gone, you came too late. You showed up too late. You started to look for the pleasure too late. You missed the last ferry to paradise.”

I decided instead to have a chocolate chip, gluten free gigantic cookie because God Help the Universe if I didn’t get something.

The clerk with the shining spirit plated it for me and smiled. She said, “This morning when we took these cookies out, we all wondered who would get the cookie with the chocolate heart in the centre.” Four young women in black aprons reading “BLISS” gathered and were now standing facing me behind the counter. They were so happy for me.

And once again my eyes filled with tears. All of them were so happy that it was my cookie.

Just at that moment, I felt how strongly I move through the world. No matter what is going on, my heart wants to love. No matter what crap talking Mafia gangster ego flailing is going on, I stop it at the gate and go into the world looking for a way to live in love.

I was so proud of my spirit. I did not drink from the cup of bitterness. I did not find people to blame. There were ten thousand choices I made away from victim hood in my life.

The lovely young women were presiding at a ritual. They stood in a row smiling at me and presented me with the chocolate heart cookie. And all the rest of the bull shit just disappeared.

The wrong turn, up the dead end alley, spinning in the round about, landing in a cul de sack subdivision bland designed homes pseudo village that has no relationships at all to offer let alone one to the past decades proximity intimacy of those who have spent generations side by side living out their lives can make you or me look like a fool.

We avoid the wrong thing: the wrong choice; the wrong words; the wrong opinion; the wrong shade of blue not this season out of step ugly duckling with the too small purse or dangling gigantic bike messenger purse of anointed lack of status value.

We cannot be unlike. We cannot be unmatching. We cannot be the wrong “style” of person.

My father once said,”Everything is relative.” He explained to me when I was seven that being quiet in a hyperactive crowd would draw attention. He sat with me until I understood being studious in a group of merry go round fun seeking attendees in a classroom would mark me as the odd one out.

If I were still when they were moving, I would be the focus. If I were moving when all others are still, I would hold attention. There was no “me” other than my behavior in comparison to the behavior of others.

Last night I had a dream that I returned to the past to a red neck, farming community where life was brutal and serious. The blacksmith did not get his massively muscular structure in front of a mirror at some gym. No one was “performing” to try out an identity. The game was survival and survival of one’s children.

In the visit to this place back in time, or before my current life, or in an alternative life, I stood before the elders and I knew their expectation of me. I was required not to “make a fool” of myself.

To be sent to coventry would be to die. To be exiled from the source of food and shelter of the village was to perish.

And in my dream being one who was serious about “fitting in” was important, the elders instructed me.

To make a “fool of yourself” means that you lack intelligence; it means that you can never be a leader; it means that the cloak of dignity and respect of wisdom will never be thrown upon your shoulders.

As I lay drifting away from my body, I saw myself turn away from the elders and find a wide open place to stand. I held out the skirt of my dress and took a deep curtsey toward them. And then I began to dance.

I danced with an invisible partner a wide ranging waltz with dips and spins. I moved to unshared music that only my dream partner and I could hear. Free flowing energy carried us beyond the boundaries of everything I had been told was real.

The joy was the dress I wore, the braids in my hair with white daisies stuck in them, the patent leather shoes I tapped upon the ground.

The joy was the ground, the sky, the trees, the softening of all dimensions to choreograph my own way of being in the world. The joy flooded in beyond any possibility of fear. My body was without boundaries, limitations. It was beyond the skeletal touch of death or the sharply structured nails of artificial beauty.

Somewhere last night I found a way to disappear into the place beyond restrictions and judgement. I was simply dancing.